Car reviews, specifications auto, motorcycles and trucks

Client Advisor/BMW of Nashville

The following letter was submitted by one of my most caring and enthusiastic customers. I met Dr. Karl Rogers in 1991 as he was finishing his Fellowship and venturing on to practice Oncology with an affiliation at Baptist Hospital. He was rewarding himself for many years of med school, internship, etc., with his “dream car”, a 1993 740iL. That car today looks like it just left the showroom. When it shares the “nursery” with his wife’s 528i (a surprise Christmas gift 2 years ago), it is under a car cover. Karl has endeared himself to all of us at BMW of Nashville with not only his enthusiasm for the entire line of cars (his pet being the newest addition – the M3 you will read about) but his unselfish enthusiasm for life…

“My new e46 M3 finally came of age. It hit the 1500 mile break-in period and I took it for it’s check-up. It barely sat long enough to have its oil changed and whatever else they had to do before being released back to the streets. My service experience was stellar. I must be a VIP or something because I seem to always get this personal attention. I hear no excuses or experience any delays, I just receive great service. I thought I was something special, but I see them treating everyone like that. It must be the M3! Anyway, are you familiar with the saying, “release the hounds”? The M3 using its full RPM range is not for the faint of heart. The acceleration is spine tingling. I now see why this car has been referred to as the “license loser”. On a particularly nice day driving home with my four daughters (3 of them teenagers), I came upon a feisty older gentleman in a Cadillac STS who seemed to want to play. He smiled at the girls as he revved his 4.0 Northstar. Traffic in my lane was restricted and he sneaked out ahead–that is, until the traffic in my lane cleared.

As we pulled next to him, the female screaming octave took on a different pitch. He sensed the urgency and must have floored the Northstar as he shot away. I called up the 333 ponies, snapping them to attention as I engaged the sport switch. We all felt the pinning effect of the acceleration between 6000 and 7800 RPM. The girls became silent as the G forces pinned their ears back and streaked their makeup. We zipped by the STS so fast that he must have felt as if he had inadvertently shifted into reverse. We later met at a traffic light and exchanged respectful smiles and waves. Two lessons from driving thus far have impressed me: First, It is difficult enough for a grown adult driver to resist the screams of teenage girls to go faster; it would be virtually impossible for a teenage driver to do so and hence, teenage drivers should not drive other teenagers around unless in his or her grandmother’s Corolla. Second, the M3 is a serious performance car and one should start saving early for the inevitable speeding violations that are surely to come. It is hard not to really drive this car as it begs to be revved. It is way too much fun to just drive legally.